Brands Hatch will host the London E-Prix starting in the 2026-27 season, with Formula E officials confirming the historic Kent circuit will replace the ExCeL centre as the home of British electric racing.
The move comes down to space. The ExCeL’s tight indoor-outdoor layout can’t handle Formula E’s bigger and faster Gen4 cars – so the championship went looking for room and found it in the Kentish countryside.
Brands Hatch isn’t the only newcomer.
Zandvoort in the Netherlands and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin also join the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, taking the series to a record 21 races across 13 cities.
The switch had been expected for months. The ExCeL’s narrow course – which weaves both inside and outside the exhibition hall – was already tight for the Gen3 Evo car. Race organizers ruled out hosting Gen4 events there entirely.
It’s easy to see why. The new car produces 805 horsepower in qualifying trim, a 50% jump over its predecessor, and it’s considerably larger and heavier.
Brands Hatch offers sweeping gradients and far greater run-off areas – a much better fit for cars of that pace and size.
Multi-Year Deal Confirmed
Formula E chief executive Jeff Dodds called Brands Hatch “one of the best circuits in the world” and confirmed a multi-year agreement with circuit operator MSV.
“I don’t influence the calendar too much, but Brands Hatch was my local circuit growing up,”
he told The Race.
The 2026-27 season opens under lights in Jeddah on December 18-19, 2026 and closes in Tokyo in July 2027. Eight venues will stage double-headers, including Brands Hatch on May 29-30, 2027 and Zandvoort on June 18-19, 2027.
Those double-header weekends introduce a new format. One race will be the traditional E-Prix with full battery-management strategy. The second will be a shorter “E-Prix Unleashed” sprint where drivers can push the Gen4 cars to the limit without managing energy.
The format should suit the returning Gen4 machinery and Brands Hatch’s wide-open layout perfectly.
American Expansion Continues
Austin had been in talks with the series for several years and now joins Miami as the second American round.
Dodds argued that more U.S. racing helps “raise awareness of other styles of racing” beyond NASCAR and IndyCar.
There’s environmental logic to the calendar’s shape too. Formula E has clustered races by continent to cut freight miles and emissions – the Americas leg runs January to March, Europe follows May to June, and Asia closes the season in July.
Dodds is confident about where the Gen4 car positions Formula E in motorsport.
“Gen4 gets us right on the heels of F1. And Gen5 is probably faster.”
Brands Hatch’s return to top-flight single-seater racing has been years in the making. It gives the London E-Prix a proper, permanent racing circuit for the first time.
For a championship eager to prove it belongs alongside Formula 1, swapping a car park for one of Britain’s most beloved tracks looks like a statement of intent. The trio of new venues marks one of the most significant calendar shake-ups in the series’ history.
